Evening Brief: June 11, 2012

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Evening.

More than 800 — that’s how many proposed amendments to Bill C-38 House Speaker Andrew Scheer has green lighted. That does not, he assured the House, mean more than 800 separate votes as many proposals will be grouped together. Probably little comfort to Conservative MPs, but they can at least take heart that the bill is still in order. Scheer also ruled today that despite Elizabeth May’s argument to that omnibus bill was not a proper omnibus bill and should therefore be scrapped, a dearth of “rules or guidelines” on omnibus legislation meant “the Chair cannot justify setting aside Bill C-38.” Read the ruling here.

With Stephen Harper talking international economics in Montreal — where he has stolen some of the protest spotlight from the Grand Prix — it was perhaps no accident that the early part of question period returned to a familiar topic: Europe and what Canada should do about it. As the opposition would have it, Harper’s mistake is to believe Canada’s an economic island. Peter Van Loan, little surprise, would tend to disagree. Colin Horgan has more at the Talking Heads blog, here.

In the world of finance, relief at Spanish acceptance of a bank bailout loan was quickly swept aside by fears that the loan is just another bandaid on the surface of Europe’s deep-seated crisis. Early gains gave way to loses on both the TSX and Dow Jones, while Spanish 10-year bond yields rose to 6.47 per cent. The news, though, is likely little surprise to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who warned Sunday that the country’s economic fortunes were still far from reversing.

Finally, who are the top 100 Tweeps in Canadian politics? Samara asked that question as a small part of its study Occupiers and Legislators: A Snapshot of Political Media Coverage. @iPoliticsca and our resident Twitterati @cfhorgan made the list. Little surprise, these two accounts dwell deep within the “Ottawa bubble” quadrant of Samara’s celestial-looking graphic. Check out this link for details.